In the oil industry, there are many types of oil pumps that may be utilized to extract petroleum oil from the earth, depending on the formation that the oil resides in. In a typical downhole well, a downhole sucker rod pump is usually utilized, and which is driven by a reciprocating pump arm situated on the site above the downhole well.
While downhold sucker rod pumps have been utilized for many years, there are still challenges and problems that operators face, including the lodging of solids between the inner diameter of the well tubing and the outer diameter of the downhole pump, specifically, the barrel which includes the moving plunger/piston therewithin. These solids residing in the drawn oil may undesirably settle and become wedged between the pump barrel and tubing, which poses a significant problem when the pump is removed for servicing. These wedged solids may cause damage to the pump, and/or provide an extremely difficult, time consuming and expensive withdrawal of the pump which results in lost revenue.
Downhole wells may easily reach 10,000 or 12,000 feet, which depth exacerbates the recovery of the pump for servicing. One prior art solution is to provide a rubber gasket about the pump barrel to provide a seal between the barrel and well tubing. This solution has many problems, as the rubber gasket is typically damaged by the significant friction when the pumped is disposed such great distances into the earth. These rubber gaskets can be easily torn, or broken off all together during the positioning of the pump into the tubing, deep in the earth, rendering the resilient rubber gasket worthless.
There is desired an improved system for preventing solids from lodging between a pump barrel and the well tubing, while maintaining a seal, which allows the downhole pump to be effectively disposed deep in the earth, and which provides for a manageable and inexpensive withdrawal of the pump for servicing.